1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a franking and prepayment machine according to the type having various accounting modes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Postage meter machines have been known since the 1920's and are still being perfected. They operate by administering a monetary amount, referred to as the allotted amount in the postage meter machine. At every franking, this allotted amount is reduced by the postage amount printed on the item for shipping. When the allotted amount has been consumed, the postage meter machine is reloaded with another allotted amount. The allotted amounts are usually debited to a customer account, so that they represent unused capital for the dwell time in the postage meter machine, since no interest is earned, or a credit was used for these amounts. This payment principle is called “pay before” by analogy with debt cards. Another disadvantage of the “pay before” principle is that the operation of reloading itself incurs outlay and/or costs. For example, the service provider or manufacturer of the postage meter machine charges a fee for reloading via a modem, as disclosed in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,699,415, bearing the title “Method for Matching the Database between an Electronic Postage Meter Machine and Data Center”. Frequent reloading is therefore uneconomical. This, however, results in the loaded amounts being relatively large, this money residing in the postage meter machine as unused capital for a longer time.
A payment principle called “pay later” has been disclosed as an alternative in conjunction with postage meter machines. U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,460, bearing the title “Method for Payment of the Recrediting of an Electronic Postage Meter and Arrangement for the Operation of a Data Central”, discloses a postage meter machine for the possibility of selectively using both payment principles, “pay before” and “pay later”, whereby a credit card establishment immediately grants a credit until payment, which also improves the operation from the customer's point of view. Although the debiting ensues separately, it is nonetheless implemented in fundamentally the same way in the postage meter machine. Payment is assumed by a credit card establishment, so that the customer does not have to pay until later.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,025,386 also discloses a solution of individually changing the payment mode (coins or card) dependent on the customer wishes. The solutions described heretofore are thus different payment methods for the same mail carrier, with the standard accounting method remaining in place.
European Patent 493 948 discloses a postage meter machine that is equipped with a number of registers in a secured module for storing accounting data that refer to the use of the postage meter machine for franking items. A first set of registers relates to a specific, first service, and a second set of registers relates to a specific, second service, the specific services being selectable via the input means and the bookkeeping data of the selected service are updated. Though only one descending register for common debiting was previously required for each of the services (mail classes) of an individual mail carrier given the “pay before” payment principle, the meter disclosed in European Patent 493 948 requires respective descending registers for separate accounting for each of the services or mail carriers given the “pay before” payment principle. Of course, a third set of registers can be provided for the overall accounting, this third set relating to both register sets, namely the first and second register sets. The above-described solution, however, is only directed to the application of the accounting and payment method for different mail carriers, or different services. One service, for example, relates to a specific mail class or shipping mode that can be indicated in the usual way, as information from the stamp imprint, that is debited in a separate register set. A first or second franking imprint is correspondingly generated respectively allocated to the first or second register set. The mail class/shipping mode thus can be printed integrated with the franking stamp or as a separate selective imprint stamp for the latter.
European Application 805 419 discloses a method for data processing in a mail processing system with a postage meter machine and an arrangement that, given the same type of accounting in the postage meter machine, enables payment according to entirely different methods. Even given employment of a value card that allows a debiting in an internal register separate from the postage meter machine, the accounting is simultaneously undertaken in an accounting unit of the postage meter machine in order to enhance the security. The above-described solution thus employs the same accounting method but uses different payment methods for different mail carriers or services.
Some private mail shipping companies offer their customers billing that ensues only after the receipt or pick-up of the items to be shipped. Due to the gradual liberalization of the market, even governmental mail authorities must compete for customers. Thus, for example, Deutsche Post AG offers optional prepayment with a prepayment stamp by conventional postage meter machines, referred to as DV-prepayment for its “Infopost” (see “Infopost”, Merkblatt der Deutschen Post AG, status as of Jan. 1996). In the DV-prepayment method, a prepayment note is printed on the shipping matter. The shipments franked in this way are paid upon receipt in the branch post office, or when picked up by the mail shipping company given greater quantities of mail. When agreed upon, the payment can even be debited to the customer's drawn down account. A financial prepayment by the customer is no longer required. The term “pay now” has been introduced for such a payment method.
A problem which arises more and more frequently in the practice of commercial or governmental mail dispatching is that both normal, daily mail, that can be most efficiently processed with the traditional franking method, as well as special mail, for example “Infopost”, that is most economically processed with the DV-prepayment, are mixed. The exploitation of the advantages of both methods requires the acquisition and maintenance of multiple shipping equipment components that are respectively dedicated for one method. A separation of outgoing mail pending for processing is also required, which involves additional, potentially manual, work steps.